pretty
by catscraddle22
Summary: Tobirama's too pretty for his sanity's sake; fluff, not to be taken too seriously.


_**Note:** Gift fic for PandaFlower._

It was another day and another meeting between the Senju and the Uchiha clans on the subject of potential alliance.

In the beginning the small chakra signature didn't even register on Tobirama's sensory net, drowned out by the crowd of more pronounced and much better developed chakra of the Uchiha clan. But since the beginning of the peace talks it was slowly drifting further and further away from the group to finally settle on his periphery.

At first, Tobirama tried to ignore the presence, keeping his focus on the talks taking place. But years of shinobi experience and resulted paranoia would not let him rest as long as some unknown was hanging around his personal space. So he looked.

A young, curly-haired, dark-eyed Uchiha boy was standing almost right under his nose. He had to incline his head to see the child properly.

As soon as they made eye contact the boy blurted out, "You're pretty."

Tobirama raised an eyebrow in silent inquiry daring the boy to elaborate or to take back his words. When he was certain that apparently nothing would follow the impromptu claim, he returned to watching over the assembly, dismissing the bizarre interaction from his mind.

In hindsight that was a mistake.

"You're very pretty and your eyes are very pretty, too," the child spoke again, clearly encouraged by Tobirama's earlier acknowledgement, regardless of how minuscule it was.

Tobirama found himself befuddled by the sudden influx of compliments, but still chose to ignore them. In his opinion, the child would cease the display as soon as he realized that his words weren't leaving any impressions on the recipient.

"I really like the red marks on your face," the boy bubbled on, however, not discouraged in the least by his unenthusiastic audience. "They make you look very special."

It was just Tobirama's luck for the little tyke to be of a persistent kind. The boy was like a stray dog that after given a scrap it refused to go away. But looking over at the place he came from it shouldn't have come as a surprise. Stubbornness and delusion seemed to be the bread and butter of the Uchiha clan.

"Red is my favorite color," the Uchiha shared and, to Tobirama's growing chagrin, continued to lay down his preferences, "but even if it wasn't I'd still think your face looks pretty."

Trying to out wait the child was slowly becoming an exercise in patience for Tobirama since the young boy didn't appear to have any plans of stopping any time soon. If the things continued as they were Tobirama was certain that he would be hearing more compliments on his looks (their questionable quality aside) in this short span of time than he had heard in his entire lifetime.

He doubted that telling the boy off would yield better results considering their surrounding company. He had a hunch that the matter would not be resolved with a mutual agreement. And Tobirama Senju making a small Uchiha child cry would not look good in the light of public relations and ongoing peace talks.

"Your hair is so white and fluffy. And your fur coat is as white and fluffy as your hair," the boy kept on listing and every new epithet was a nail to the coffin of Tobirama's fierce reputation. He hoped that by the time it was over he would still have some of it left.

He considered discretely signaling Hashirama to take care of the ensuing problem that was slowing making itself to be a mountain instead of the molehill it started as. Unfortunately, he was forced to drop the plan as some of the people started taking notice of the ongoing shenanigans. Being cowed by a few innocent compliments to the point of calling in his big brother to swoop in and save him from unwanted advances of a minor was not something he wished to go down in history for.

"You look a lot like a big winter bunny," the boy continued, undaunted. "Because you're white, fluffy and cute, too."

As the compliments grew more and more exuberant and absurd with every word spoken. Tobirama inwardly cursed the child's guardians for not teaching him the basic rules of proper behaviour in public. Or at least some common sense not to approach strangers, especially from the enemy clan.

He valiantly stared ahead and tried very hard to ignore the brat. He was telling himself that for sure there had to be a limit to the extent of the child's vocabulary. There were only so many ways to frame praises on his appearance without repeating themselves.

"And you're so very, very tall that you don't need help taking things down from a shelf," the brat went on, proving him wrong.

Tobirama noted that the situation was rapidly turning from being mildly annoying to being utterly embarrassing. His face felt like on fire and he was beginning to get hot under the collar as more people begun to look in their direction. Some of them started to openly stare and unabashedly listen in.

"And you're armor looks so heavy so you must be really, really strong, too."

Oblivious to Tobirama's internal breakdown, the compliments kept pouring in.

"And you have such a big and shiny sword."

He only hoped that the embarrassment didn't really show on his face. The thought that his reputation as the indomitable Senju warrior would go down in flames fanned by the compliments of a small child was mortifying.

"Since I really, really like you and you're very, very pretty and we are not fighting anymore... Will you marry this Uchiha Kagami?" the boy finished with hopeful note in his voice. "Pretty please."

Tobirama let himself enjoy the ensued, blissful silence only for a brief moment, because, hell, _NO!_ He wanted to throw in a solid _'Kai'_ for good measure just to dispel any chances that it was a genjutsu induced nightmare with an Uchiha just waiting to jump out and shout _'Got you!'_.

With how quiet it suddenly got after the question was posed, Tobirama was dead certain that there wasn't any soul not watching this social disaster. They could at least retain some semblance of pretense of actually having these peace negotiations.

Tobirama adopted a haughty look and without a shred of acknowledgment toward the supplicant or the onlookers, slowly turned toward his elder brother to lob that hot potato of a conversation at his stupid, smiling face. External marriage proposals were the clan head's affairs after all.


End file.
